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Board Of Aldermen - Agenda - 7/1/2021 - P3

By dnadmin on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 06:59
Document Date
Fri, 06/25/2021 - 14:22
Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
Document Type
Agenda
Meeting Date
Thu, 07/01/2021 - 00:00
Page Number
3
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/boa_a__070120…

RESOLUTION R-21-142

Neither the approval and adoption of this budget, or any appropriation contained herein,
or to any City department or agency, including the Nashua Schoo! District, whether as proposed
or amended, shall be deemed to mean that the City has approved any program or responsibility
for funding in accordance with Part 1, Article 28-a of the Constitution of the State of New
Hampshire. Notwithstanding any appropriation herein, the city hereby expressly declines to
approve funding for any program or responsibility for which it is entitled by law to payment
from the State of New Hampshire pursuant to Part 1, Article 28-a of the State Constitution,
whether it has previously been determined that the City is entitled to said funding or not.

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Board Of Aldermen - Agenda - 7/1/2021 - P3

Board Of Aldermen - Agenda - 7/1/2021 - P4

By dnadmin on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 06:59
Document Date
Fri, 06/25/2021 - 14:22
Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
Document Type
Agenda
Meeting Date
Thu, 07/01/2021 - 00:00
Page Number
4
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/boa_a__070120…

LEGISLATIVE YEAR 2021

RESOLUTION: R-21-142
PURPOSE: Relative to the adoption of the Fiscal Year 2022 proposed

budget for the City of Nashua general, enterprise, and special
revenue funds

SPONSOR(S): Mayor Jim Donchess

COMMITTEE
ASSIGNMENT: Budget Review Committee

FISCAL NOTE: The tax rate cannot be determined at this time, however estimates
will be provided. The entire budget is a comprehensive package
and each component impacts the tax rate.

ANALYSIS

This resolution adopts the Fiscal Year 2022 Budget for the City’s general, enterprise, and special
revenue funds. For the purpose of Section 50-a et seq. of the Nashua Revised City Charter, as
amended, each item of this budget shall be considered as a separate appropriation.

A public hearing on the budget shall be held before its adoption by the board of aldermen with at
least seven days’ notice. Nashua City Charter $ 56-a; NRO § 5-8.

Nashua City Charter § 56-b provides that the board of aldermen may reduce any item in the
mayor's budget by a majority vote, but an increase or addition requires a vote of two-thirds of
the members of the board. Court decisions concerning Nashua’s Charter suggest that a court
may find that this provision, when applied to the budget resolution itself, is inconsistent with
state statutes and therefore unenforceable. See memorandum of Corporation Counsel dated
March 8, 2018.

The budget shall be finally adopted not later than August |, 2021. Nashua City Charter § 56-b.

Approved as to content, Financial Services Division

account structure, numbers,

and amount: By: _/s/John Griffin

Approved as to form: Office of Corporation Counsel
By:

Date: 1 Maw. ar

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Board Of Aldermen - Agenda - 7/1/2021 - P4

Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 7/1/2021 - P16

By dnadmin on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 07:00
Document Date
Thu, 07/01/2021 - 00:00
Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
Document Type
Minutes
Meeting Date
Thu, 07/01/2021 - 00:00
Page Number
16
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/boa_m__070120…

Special Board of Aldermen 07-01-2021 Page 16

MOTION TO AMEND BY ALDERMEN JETTE TO ELMINATE $241,338.00 FROM THE POLICE
DEPARTMENT LINE 90120

ON THE QUESTION
President Wilshire
Alderman Jette?
Alderman Jette

So we have heard the Mayor explain his position how he started from being a given difficult task based
upon the consequences of what the State Pension Fund, the amount that they are asking us to pay plus
the legislature’s not funding schools as much, not funding or giving us our full share of the Rooms & Meals
tax. There were several things that the State Budget is doing that is reducing the support that the City is
getting from the State which has put us in a difficult situation. And he explained how he asked the various
departments to either maintain a zero budget or reduce it and how he tried to get the Police Department to
go with, | think it was a 1.7% cost of living increase. And the Police came back and said that they want —
that they don’t want to do that. So the effect of the Mayor holding them to the 1.7% cost of living increase
if | understood it correctly was that it would reduce their proposed budget by about $241,338.00.

Now their entire budget is according to page 144, their entire budget is $35,320,858.00. That is a 6.7%
increase over last year’s budget and the Mayor asking them to reduce that by $241,338.00 seemed fairly
reasonable to me. | think that in a $35 million dollar budget they would be able to find that amount and |
think during the budget hearing, the Police Chief told us that he could meet the Mayor’s request that
whatever amount of money we provided to the Police Department he would live with that but he pointed to
us that that there would be a reduction in services in some way. And he pointed out that he would have to
eliminate 4 police officers. | questioned him about that because | think when | divide the $240 or whatever
amount that the Mayor is asking him to reduce the budget by 4 | end up with around $60,000.00. | know
Police Officers make more than that and when you add in their benefits it is a lot more than that. And |
think, you know, | have a lot of respect for the Police Department and the Chief and the Deputies and all of
the Police Officers, | think he does a great job, it is an extremely well run Department.

But when we are asking other Departments to reduce their budgets or limit their budgets to under 2% and
the Police are asking us for 6.7% | think it’s not fair. | think that and | am not going to pretend to be able to
look at their budget and come up with items that | would say they can reduce. The Chief and there’s a
Commission that can do that, they have an excellent budget person. So! am not going to tell them how to
reduce their budget by $241,000.00 but | certainly believe that they can. We are talking about $35 million,
$241,000.00 out of $35 million, it seems to me that that’s a reasonable request. The Mayor is trying to
deal with a difficult situation and he’s asked the Departments to cooperate in that regard and | think it is
reasonable. You know, we’ve just been awarded or this Wallet Hub has said that we are the 4'" Best Run
City in the Nation and that’s certainly not because of anything I’ve done. | think it is largely due to the
Mayor and his management of the City Departments including the Police Department. And | support him
in his trying to lessen the impact on the taxpayers as much as possible. So that’s why | make that motion.

President Wilshire

Alderman Dowd?

Alderman Dowd

Yes | am the liaison of the Police Commissioners and yes they will operate with any amount of money we

give them. But you can’t expect the same amount of service. And when they put their budget together
they didn’t add anything, they just kept the same services and the same manning and everything that they

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Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 7/1/2021 - P16

Finance Committee - Agenda - 3/2/2022 - P32

By dnadmin on Sun, 11/06/2022 - 21:40
Document Date
Thu, 02/24/2022 - 13:47
Meeting Description
Finance Committee
Document Type
Agenda
Meeting Date
Wed, 03/02/2022 - 00:00
Page Number
32
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/fin_a__030220…

Exhibit A
Scope of Work: City-Wide Pedestrian Infrastructure Conditions Assessment and Ranking

SYNOPSIS:

The City of Nashua, NH (the City) is committed to creating accessible paths of travel in the public right-
of-way for people of all abilities. In order to enhance compliance with the Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA), the City desires to complete a city-wide inventory of pedestrian infrastructure. Once
complete, this inventory will assist the City in identifying priority locations for improvements and
maintenance and will become the primary input to a comprehensive ADA plan.

EXISTING RESOURCES:

The City and The Nashua Regional Planning Commission (NRPC) have a solid base of resources and
expertise to ensure the success of this project. Specifically,

¢ The New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) has developed a cloud GIS mobile
data collection framework known as the Statewide Asset Data Exchange System, or SADES, and
made this framework available to the nine RPCs in the state. Built on the ESRI ArcGIS for Server,
ArcGIS Online, and ESRI Collector stack, the SADES system establishes a primary inventory and
maintainable condition assessment process for transportation assets in the state. SADES has
been specifically tailored to capture pedestrian infrastructure data for ADA compliance.

e NRPC is well-versed in SADES. NRPC partnered with the City of Nashua in 2020 to conduct a
city-wide pedestrian Level of Service Analysis that included 17 miles of SADES pedestrian
infrastructure assessment. Additionally, in 2017 NRPC inventoried seven miles of sidewalk, 18
crosswalks, and 103 curb ramps along Daniel Webster Hwy in Merrimack, NH.

e The City has a robust geographic information system (GIS) that includes new city-wide location
data on sidewalks and crosswalks. These features will serve as an important input into the
SADES GIS data model and will be further developed through the course of the project. Any
missing or misclassified sidewalks and crosswalk features will be corrected, all necessary
attributes will be added, and an inventory of curb ramps and pedestrian signals will be created.

PROJECT PHASES
Phase 1: Field Data Collection

In partnership with the City, the Nashua Regional Planning Commission (NRPC) will complete a
comprehensive city-wide program of field data capture for sidewalks, crosswalks, curb ramps, and
pedestrian signals. This infrastructure will be compiled into a spatial database that includes the
presence or absence of features, their relative condition, and associated physical barriers. This work
expands upon the 17 linear miles of sidewalk already surveyed by NRPC during summer of 2020. This
project will primarily consist of an extensive field data collection campaign using state-of-the-art mobile
and cloud-based GIS.

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Finance Committee - Agenda - 3/2/2022 - P32

Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 7/1/2021 - P17

By dnadmin on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 07:00
Document Date
Thu, 07/01/2021 - 00:00
Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
Document Type
Minutes
Meeting Date
Thu, 07/01/2021 - 00:00
Page Number
17
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/boa_m__070120…

Special Board of Aldermen 07-01-2021 Page 17

had last year. And then it was cut so there are going to be losses. If you take that into consideration when
the fentanyl traffic is growing, and | am sure you get the same reports | do on the arrests that are being
made and during this last year the Police Officers that were physically harmed and/or out of work because
of arrests that were made, it’s not an easy job. It is protecting the people of Nashua. It is a safety issue. |
for one am not going to have the State drive the safety of our citizens in Nashua.

That amount of money will allow them to maintain the same levels of service that they had last year and
provide the services. There are a lot of things that they won’t be able to do, believe it or not, with that cut.
And the people of Nashua are going to — you know right now they are not at the full complement of officers
that they could have and should have by their analysis. | don’t know how many times I’ve heard people
say, OH it takes a police officer 10 minutes to get here. That’s because each sector has one car, three
each shift. We are not over policed, we are adequately policed and they do a great job with the staff they
have. And I, for one, am not going to cut one penny from their request to maintain the services that they
have provided over the past year which were exemplary.

Last year they were commended as one of the best, if not the best, Police Accredited Agency in the United
States. That is something to be proud of. And, | for one, will not cut them to save a couple buck on the tax
rate. You know, if you are somebody out there and your home is being burglarized because drug dealers
need money to buy their drugs, you want a police officer to be able to respond and you don’t want them 10
minutes later, you want them as soon as he can get there. If you follow the amount of arrests and things
that have gone on in the City and the lack of development of drug dealers because we have two POP
units, which we may lose one if this cut does in, | for one, would not ever try to save that much money and
lose that kind of protection.

President Wilshire

Alderman Lopez.

Alderman Lopez

Echoing a lot of what Alderman Dowd said, | find it extremely inconsistent to claim that you have high
respect for the budgetary prowess of the Police Department and respect for the good work that they do on
the job while literally telling them that you are just going to drop their budget done, despite their objections
and despite their concerns with the assumption that they can make it work based on what you are looking
for. | can’t follow that logic. | would say that there’s a big difference between cocaine and
methamphetamine which are two of the more prevalent drugs on the street than fentanyl and carfentanil.
Carfentanil is definitely dangerous because it is an area infector so it is a danger to First Responders. But
someone who is cocaine or somebody who is using methamphetamines is typically much more agitated,
aroused, animated, violent. One of the areas that we scored very highly on in order to get our good
governance was low incidents of violent crime.

So if we decide to ignore the police and what they report as their level of need a time when we are seeing
an increase in the substances that contribute to violent crime, we are going to see a rise in violent crime.
That doesn’t just translate to Wallet Hub rankings that translates to death, injuries, our own people being
put in a greater level of harms way. The best way to respond to those types of situations is to intervene
before they start to become widespread. We did not collective, as a State, do a very good job with the
opioid crisis when it first presented itself, we responded after it was very evident in low income situations or
in areas of poverty, we really only responded to it when it was impossible to ignore.

Our response was extremely effective thanks to a pretty healthy amount of leadership and vision from the
Fire Department and from Mayor Donchess in arranging the Safe Station Program which the State took
over, realigned and redesigned into a model that is not as effective is not anywhere near as responsive.
They awarded contracts to partners that basically resulted in our Fire Department not being able to take 24
hour walk ups or calls because there would be nowhere to send them to. Apparently the crisis is now just
a 9:00 to 5:00 bureaucratic exercise, it is not the same situation. So we don’t have the same protections

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Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 7/1/2021 - P17

Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 7/1/2021 - P18

By dnadmin on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 07:00
Document Date
Thu, 07/01/2021 - 00:00
Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
Document Type
Minutes
Meeting Date
Thu, 07/01/2021 - 00:00
Page Number
18
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/boa_m__070120…

Special Board of Aldermen 07-01-2021 Page 18

that we had even two years ago against the opioid crisis which was people getting high, people being
sedentary, not people getting animated and attacking each other and using weapons on each other. We
are in a very different risk phase right now.

| don’t know if anybody was not paying attention last year, but tensions got a little bit with the pandemic.
There was a little bit of political friction that was taking place; you guys may have noticed it. And that
hasn’t exactly gone away. There are organized groups that are, as a result of that, operating in Nashua
that Nashua PD is concerned about, Nashua PD is intervening in. Some Wards get a little bit more of it
than others. So | will grant that probably Ward 4 and maybe Ward 3 and maybe Alderman Caron’s Ward
see a little bit more Police activity and need than other Aldermen who feel comfortable cutting the Police. |
don’t, | think it is a very important Department to fund and we can’t look at it being fair to expect them to
take the exact same cut in budget on a numerical basis as like the GIS Department or any of the services
that are really nice for us to have and do contribute overall to the City’s services to constituents but are
more amenities, not requirements. It doesn’t matter how quick with respect to City Clerk Lovering, how
quickly our City Clerk’s Office is able to process your motor vehicle if your car gets stolen.

So | think it is important that we recognize the importance of the Police Department with more than rhetoric
and not cut them any further. And finally | would remind my fellow Aldermen that the Police Department
were the ones who found the solution to their overages and figured out the CERF strategy in the first
place. It’s not like they are not trying to work on this and they are not making recommendations. | think we
should listen to the recommendations instead of accepting them and pushing for more despite what they
are telling us.

President Wilshire

All set Alderman Lopez?

Alderman Lopez

Yes.

President Wilshire
Alderman Tencza.
Alderman Tencza

Thank you Madam President. | just wanted to make a couple of points on Alderman Jette’s motion, just
generally. | think when we speak about percentage increases | think it is important to look at what those
percentages mean really for the tax rate because we throw out numbers like 3% or 4% and none of us like
to raise people’s taxes and we all, | think, understand that any tax increase some members of our
community more than others. But just as an example | want to use my house at 10 Monica Drive about
what a 4% or 3% tax increase would be for me and my family. So if | do the math at 3.5% tax increase
would amount to about an additional $250.00 for us next year added on to our tax bill or about $21.00 a
month extra that we would pay. And then a 4% increase in the tax bill would be about $280.00 or $23.00
per month that we would pay in additional taxes.

And so when we say we think of 4% as being an outrageous number, you know, | can confidently speak
for myself, for many of my neighbors when | say that we are fortunate and we gladly would pay the extra
$23.00 a month to keep our City services where they are. Not just Police and Fire but School, DPW, City
Hall, everyone who does a fantastic job to make Nashua such an attractive place to live. One of the things
that we forget about when we are having this discussion is not only what the tax increases are but the
values of property have increased in the City and how that affects folks as well. There are certainly people
who are benefiting because Nashua is an attractive place to live and more and more people want to move
here and be part of our community.

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Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 7/1/2021 - P18

Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 7/1/2021 - P19

By dnadmin on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 07:00
Document Date
Thu, 07/01/2021 - 00:00
Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
Document Type
Minutes
Meeting Date
Thu, 07/01/2021 - 00:00
Page Number
19
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/boa_m__070120…

Special Board of Aldermen 07-01-2021 Page 19

Certainly like many people have talked about a lot of that is the quality of our services — Schools, Police
and Firefighters. So | think these additional funds that the Budget Committee has included for Police and
Fire are worth the investment. The next thing | just want to point out is if you look at the cities and towns
surrounding Nashua, our tax rate is right in line with what many of the other towns are charging their
residents. Per thousand the Hudson tax rate is $21.37 for 2020; Salem is $22.02 per thousand; Merrimack
is $24.06 per thousand; Hollis $23.18 per thousand. Now those towns don’t offer the same services that
we do; they certainly don’t have the same number of employees. So our tax rate | feel, again, at $22.61
per thousand or even as an increase it still is very much in line with those towns and again a great deal for
our residents.

If you look at cities, the cities in New Hampshire, Manchester’s tax rate is $24.66 per thousand and
Concord’s is $26.76 per thousand. So the residents of Nashua, again, are coming out ahead as opposed
to what other cities are able to do for or the cost to live in those other cities. So | would hope that this
Board and if Aldermen Jette makes a second motion as it relates to the Fire Department | may have some
other comments. But! would hope that the Board takes all of that into consideration. Certainly if there are
people that are affected by any tax increases, | would hope that the Legal Department and Assessing will
work with them to be able to come up with a way that is not a detriment to them, especially our elderly
population or people who are maybe more low income. But given the work and the consideration that the
Budget Committee has done and these Departments have done, | hope that we can come together and
support the Budget as it came out of the Budget Committee. Thank you.

President Wilshire
Thank you. Alderman Klee?
Alderman Klee

Thank you Madam President. | am going to be honest, when | came here | thought why should we
increase Police and Fire the additional amount over the 1.7% cost of living that the Mayor had put in,
especially considering that so many Departments had either gone a flat line or they went negative, they
decreased their budget. But as | have been sitting here listening, | think Alderman Jette made some very
good comments and remarks but then | look to my other colleagues and one of the things that Alderman
Lopez had brought was the number of hate groups coming in. We are seeing them openly doing this and |
can tell you in my Ward | have witnessed it as well. | have witnessed people being threatened. | know we
have had more FBI interaction and so on and knowing that, | would have anxiety of not giving them what
they say they need. | do hear year after year, and | will be honest, if we don’t get this we are going to have
to cut this, we are going to our POP unit, we are going to cut this or we are going to cut that. It does
eventually become noise and that’s kind of the way | walked in here, | heard this last year, | heard this next
year.

And Chief Carignan always makes the comment, we will make do with what we have and | believe even
Chief Rhodes has made the same comment, we will make do with whatever we have. And | feel confident
that they would. But then looking at this of $241,338.00 | do agree with what Alderman Jette said, | believe
they could find it. But to what cost and to what end. And | can’t sit back and allow these hate groups to
just keep getting bigger and bigger. And as much as | agree with the increase in opioids and all the other
drugs that are coming through here, the hate groups are the things that scare me the most right now. And
| am seeing them all over social media, | am seeing them in pictures that people are proudly standing by
them, those that are running for office and so on. It is becoming the acceptable norm and | think we have
to fight that on all levels and | think even our Fire Department will be fighting those as well. So at this
point, | have kind of been won over to passing this as it has been proposed. So thank you for giving me
the time.

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Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 7/1/2021 - P19

Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 7/1/2021 - P20

By dnadmin on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 07:00
Document Date
Thu, 07/01/2021 - 00:00
Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
Document Type
Minutes
Meeting Date
Thu, 07/01/2021 - 00:00
Page Number
20
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/boa_m__070120…

Special Board of Aldermen 07-01-2021 Page 20
President Wilshire

You’re welcome. Anyone else? The motion is to restore the $241,338.00 bottom line cut — no to eliminate
that. Seeing no further discussion, would the Clerk please call the roll?

Alderman Klee

So this is not give them the $241?

City Clerk Lovering

The motion by Alderman Jette was to subtract $241,338.00 from the golden rod copy by reducing
Department 150 — Police 90120 bottom line by that amount - $241,338.00.

A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:
Yea: Alderman Jette 1

Nay: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Klee, Alderman Dowd,
Alderman Caron, Alderman Lopez, Alderman Tencza,
Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Cleaver,
Alderman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire
10
MOTION FAILED

President Wilshire
Do | have another motion? Alderman Jette?
Alderman Jette

| am sorry to waste everyone’s time but | would like to make a similar motion to eliminate $418,771.00 from
the Fire Department’s bottom line — Account Number 90120.

MOTION BY ALDERMEN JETTE TO REDUCE THE FIRE DEPARTMENT’S BOTTOM LINE BY
ELIMINATING $418,771.00 BY ROLL CALL

ON THE QUESTION

President Wilshire

You’ve heard the motion? Alderman Dowd?
Alderman Dowd

Yes, we are still keeping part of the Mayor’s cut of $80,000.00. What we are keeping in the firemen’s
budget is the ability to keep an entire company of firemen on line. And it is not as simple as that amount of
money would pay for 16 people, it is not the way it is set up. Also it is allowing for a half-time, starting in
January for a safety officer in the Marshall’s Office which will be doing the twice a year, required State
inspections of schools that hasn’t been done. And from the discussions we have had in this construction
project, they are finding a lot of things that should be found by this Fire Marshall. We have 18 schools, that
is 36 different inspections plus this person is also going to be the person that manages capacity at different
places, you know? We don’t want to have some place burn down because nobody checked it and they
couldn’t have that many people in it.

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Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 7/1/2021 - P20

Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 7/1/2021 - P21

By dnadmin on Mon, 11/07/2022 - 07:00
Document Date
Thu, 07/01/2021 - 00:00
Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
Document Type
Minutes
Meeting Date
Thu, 07/01/2021 - 00:00
Page Number
21
Image URL
https://nashuameetingsstorage.blob.core.windows.net/nm-docs-pages/boa_m__070120…

Special Board of Aldermen 07-01-2021 Page 21

And also they do the training for the firemen that have been filled in by other people who aren’t doing the full
job that they should be doing because they have to do the training; training is pretty essential. So it is
something that existed before, it was cut from the Fire Department by the previous Mayor for a budget to
stay under the spending cap. And it is something that is required. Let’s hypothetically say if they take a Fire
Company off line, they take a truck off line. We are spending between $800,000.00 and $1.5 million dollars
on trucks. Are we going to have that truck sitting somewhere that it can’t be used. To me that is physically
irresponsible. And also, who is the first person to arrive if you have a medical emergency, a fire or some
type of other activity? It is always the Fire Department. They are all paramedics and some of them are
even more highly trained medically. If you are having a heart attack, do you want to wait a few extra
minutes for the ambulance to get there instead of the fire truck? | don’t think so. | don’t.

We didn’t give them all the money back that they had requested but it makes senses to give them this
amount of money to retain the fire company and hire this person that is critical, | think, to school safety and
the safety of many of our businesses in town.

President Wilshire
Alderman Jette?
Alderman Jette

| won’t repeat everything | said previously about trying to support the Mayor and what | said about the Police
Department pretty much applies to the Fire Department. | haven’t been around as long as you have, but
when Alderman Klee mentioned that every budget season any cut is going to be the end of the world. | don’t
think so. A lot of these problems that you mention are problems that have existed for year. | agree with you
that they should be fixed but picking this year under the financial restrains that we have to remedy those
situations, | just think that it could be postponed and | think that cooperating with the Mayor’s efforts to try to
deal with this budget, is the right thing to do. | would have expected the Fire Commissioners and the Fire
Department to help out as well not try to solve problems that have existed. The Fire Department, I’ve heard
the Fire Commissioners say “it’s never a good year’ and the Chief say, “it's never a good year for the Fire
Department”. But since I’ve been here the Fire Department always needs something. Every Department
needs something.

| am sure there are projects that the Department of Public Works would like to tackle this year. A 6%
increase would enable them to do that. And | understand about the critical role that they play and they may
not believe me when | say this, but | appreciate the firefighters and | am trying to support them but there’s
only so much money and so | am sorry | can’t fully support them to the degree that they would like on this
issue. But that’s why | made the motion.

President Wilshire

Alderman Lopez.

Alderman Lopez

So my impression is that these aren’t these are like “to do projects” or like on the same level as repainting a
park or trying to re do a pool. Making sure that we have our schools inspected for fire safety is more
leveraging assets against a large unmet need. So the fact that we’ve gone this far or we have had this
many years without being able to address that issue doesn’t speak particularly highly of the governance that
we were ranked with. It probably speaks more to the Fire Department compensation for their lack of
resources by working overtime and | am pretty sure that was part of the Chief’s reference as well that they
are being spread increasingly thin. We have expressed a lot of pride in ourselves at growing the tax base
and investing in new opportunities to build and grow our City; that comes with dangers, that comes with
liabilities. There’s a huge building that collapsed in Miami that speaks to the need to do regular inspections,
when you don’t do that the human cost is high, a tragedy is enormous.

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Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 7/1/2021 - P21

Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 7/1/2021 - P22

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Document Date
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Meeting Description
Board Of Aldermen
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Minutes
Meeting Date
Thu, 07/01/2021 - 00:00
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22
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Special Board of Aldermen 07-01-2021 Page 22

But more specifically the actions and the reputation and the performance of the Fire Department does
specifically benefit people’s insurance premiums and that is a financial value. | think they’ve been asking for
another fire station for years and we have not been able to even approach finding the resources for that. But
being able to make sure that they are keeping up with the training of the fire department that they have
without overextending their existing staff as it expands to respond to calls with taller and more complex
buildings that we are authorizing — that’s being frugal, that’s being efficient and that’s being responsible.
This year of all years, doesn’t mean that there is going to be less fire just because Concord decided that
they were going to play a little fast and loose with our ability to self-govern Nashua. There have been more
fires | believe, there have been more incidents, we just got through a major heat wave. And again,
yesterday we had a fire in the middle of a rain storm.

So | don’t think that the bottom line of the Fire Department is going to be contingent to politics. | think we
need to be looking at the needs that they present and what they are actually going to do with the money. |
don’t think they are asking for anything ridiculous, if we have events and people are coming out of COVID-
19 and restaurants are trying to recover from economic damage and they want to bring in as many people
as possible, we should probably have somebody there to manage that occupancy so that we don’t have to
call all of the fire companies to deal with a major first aid disaster or a major event. Recently the Fire
Department has been called for mutual aid calls in some pretty big situations in other cities too when those
cities found that they didn’t have the capability to respond themselves and that’s not something we should
be entertaining.

| think, again, some neighborhoods are different. Mine has a lot of older buildings, has a lot of older citizens
in those buildings who may not have the same access to using stairs quickly or mobility or that kind of thing.
So using the example from a couple of weeks ago, what was stopped immediately as a mattress fire could
have been a devastating event which as a City, would have cost the taxpayers a lot more to respond to and
would have cost the families and the associates of the people involved even more. So | support their
request and | don’t think that the minimal impact that it would have on the individual tax bill is equivalent to
the services that the offer. | think it is important that we actually make difficult decisions in terms of
governance. And that doesn’t just mean figuring out what we can cut and tell ourselves we made a good
decision, it also means having the courage to say there are some services that are very important. Their
services are important and we are going to match all the rhetoric we give in support of them with actual
action supporting them.

President Wilshire
Alderman Klee?
Alderman Klee

Thank you again Madam President. | just want to make a comment. When we talk about the possibility of
having to close a fire station and knowing that all the reports of recent time are telling us we should increase
by 2 fire stations, | get a little anxious. | know | had someone kind of joke to me and said “how would you
like it if the Amherst Fire Department was one of those that had closed”. And | said, “no it is the most historic
one, it’s got to stay there and | will fight for that”. But then | look back at recent times within the past month
there was in one 24 hour period there were two (inaudible — audio interference) in Ward 3. One on Concord
Street where the entire home is gone. That family has been displaced and luckily we had no damage to the
buildings that were very close to it and that was because we had fast response from the Amherst Street Fire
Department. They are right there, right around the corner and no other homes were lost; that one was sadly
lost. And it is part of the historic district and it brings a tear every time | drive by it. And then Leighton
Street. We had a fire there that ended up with a lot of water damage and those people had to be displaced
and so on.

That was within a 24 hour period; one happened very early in the morning and one happened in the
afternoon, | think it was. If that Fire Department had not been there, would we have lost more, would we

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